Gary Skole, Owner
We have been in the home care business since 1989. We started our New Jersey based business with a traditional style of home care and after years of listening to our clients, learned that there was something missing. Good, quality care was being provided and seniors were happy to be able to live at home, but for many, it was merely existing from day to day. There was little joy or enrichment in their lives. For their children, they escaped the guilt of institutionalizing their parents, but felt more like a caregiver than a son or daughter.
We knew we could do better and after years of planning, came up with the concept of Assisted Living At Home
Assisted Living At Home is a model of care which is a cross between traditional in home care services and assisted living facilities. It represents the best of both worlds. Studies show that 89% of seniors wish to remain living in their own homes for as long as possible. The owners of Assisted Living At Home have been in the home care industry for over two decades in NJ and realized that home care services did provide seniors the ability to fulfill their wishes and age in their homes, but was lacking in several areas that made assisted living attractive.
After studying the assisted living model, several key components were adapted for home care.
These include:
- Specialize in live-in caregivers while also offering hourly help.
- Unique Alz Well At Home Program developed with a leading Alzheimer’s expert. This home care program trains office staff, care managers and caregivers how to work with Alzheimer’s/ dementia patients in the home to give them the most enriching and managable experience available.
- Music For Memory – This program provides free iPods programmed with meaningful music.
- Focus on both physical patient care and patient happiness with enriching activities.
- Caregivers trained to look for opportunities to provide life enrichment.
- Visiting Paws program provides certified therapy animals to visit seniors who love animals.
- Visiting beauty parlor/barber service for homebound seniors or those that enjoy the convenience of having their hair done at home.
- Visiting physician service where doctors make house calls to homebound seniors.
- Personal concierge to help schedule and coordinate appointments and social events, to assist in ordering medication refills and to help seniors with non-care issues like scheduling household repairs with plumbers, electricians and handymen.
The end result is the next generation of home care services. This holistic approach promotes health, enjoyable aging in place using certified home health aides who are bonded, insured and supervised by a registered nurse.
Alz Well At Home
This unique program is dedicated to helping seniors suffering from the debilitating affects of Alzheimer’s / dementia to live at home while enjoying the highest quality life possible. Working with dementia experts from across the country, the staff at Assisted living At Home has implemented a training protocol which teaches office staff, field supervisors, care managers and caregivers how to effectively manage people suffering from this disease in the home setting while providing enriching activities and an enjoyable lifestyle.
Special emphasis is put on working with family members and others involved in the care to teach them what to expect and how to work with the person in need. This educational component is a key to successful care management.
Each client is also given their own iPod filled with meaningful music. Music therapy has been scientifically proven to benefit dementia patients. Amazingly, even when they lose the ability to speak or remember the names of their loved ones, they are still able to sing songs from their past, and smile while doing it.
After years of providing care, it was finally recognized that Alzheimer’s cases were often far more complex and challenging than most other types of cases. A completely new program needed to be developed, from a far more detailed intake and assessment to daily activities and education. The end result is a specialized program unique to Assisted Living At Home which is enabling families to keep their loved ones where they want to be, at home.
Music For Memory
Gary Skole, the owner of Assisted Living At Home has started a 501c3 charity called Music For Memory www.musicformemory.org This program collects old ipods and also purchases new ones to be distributed to seniors with Alzheimer’s / dementia. The program is available for all residents of Burlington, Camden and Gloucester counties in New Jersey. People do not need to be client’s of Assisted Living At Home to receive an iPod.
Each iPod is loaded with meaningful songs from the seniors youth. In addition, a wall charger and headphones or speakers are also part of the package. The iPods are hand delivered to the individual and their caregiver along with directions on how to use.
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